Cricket- Cornwall Division Six (East)
Tideford II v Menheniot II
On a typical bright and breezy late spring day, a keenly contested match was fought out in good spirit between these local rivals at the picturesque St Germans ground.
Tideford won the toss and inserted the opposition on a goodish looking pitch, something of a gamble given their erratic form with the bat this season.
Ellacott removed McLoughlin early for just 2 but Tunadine and Harrison batted well, taking the score to 47 before Copp removed Harrison for the first of his 3 wickets. Maiden came in to join the impressive Tunadine and although fortunate to receive the benefit of the doubt in a caught and bowled decision against Copp, batted well for a top score of 66 until being well caught on the mid-wicket boundary by R Holland. Tunadine played well for 32 before Ellacott also bowled him with one that cut back and took the inside edge onto the stumps.
The innings began to fall away with the departure of Maiden until Glover, the former Tideford legend returning to the scene of his many former triumphs, appeared to be setting himself to marshall the tail in the style of Michael Bevan, playing with great watchfulness and caution. He finally attempted to get off the mark of a widish ball from Copp, but could only slash it to Point where R Holland took a sharp catch. The innings was ended off of the penultimate ball of the last over by Olver's second stumping, giving D Holland his first 5 wicket haul of the campaign.
In reply, Copp and Barr put on 37 until Copp played on to Walton for 14. Barr was then joined by D Holland and they added 92 in good time. Barr was dismissed for 52 with the score at 129 but Holland continued to take full advantage of the luck that had eluded his thus far into the season to score 68, before finally holing out to deep square-leg, giving young Keeble a deserved wicket.
The experienced Olver then saw Tideford home without further loss, scoring 24 not out, hitting the winning boundary into the adjacent potato field with the hapless Glover in vain pursuit, despite the encouragement of his former colleagues.
In a match that had given both Captains selection headaches over availability, the virtue of youth development was evident in the number of home-grown young players on both sides who featured well in this match, giving genuine reasons to be optimistic for the future of these two clubs.
Scores - Menheniot 175 (A Tunadine 32, J Harrison 14, M Maiden 66, A Keeble not out 12; D Holland 5-43, D Copp 3-43, A Ellacott 2-52.)
Tideford 177 (Copp 14, Barr 52, D Holland 68, K Olver not out 24; Walton 1-39, Keeble 1-49, Tunadine 1-44.
Tideford (20 pts) beat Menheniot (5) by seven wickets.